In ZombiU, escape from London with hints from friends (preview)

The Olympics put a spotlight on London. Over 17 days, viewers got to know several parts of the city — the Eye, Big Ben and the Tower Bridge. For those wanting to see more of the sights, they can travel there vicariously through an upcoming video game.

The good: It’s cheaper than a plane flight across the Atlantic. The bad (depending on your perspective): It will be full of zombies. That’s the setting for the Wii U launch title ZombiU. I had a chance to play an updated build of the launch title last week at a pre-Gamescom event in San Francisco. (Here are my first impressions.)

The demo was focused on an escape from Buckingham Palace, and during the play-through, I got a little more insight into how the game works. Players start at a safe house and they travel to locations via sewer tunnels. It instantly transports players to the destination as long as they have already been there.

Your character has one life. Be careful with it. Scan your surroundings before venturing forth.

A DIFFICULT GAME: Playing ZombiU again, I was struck at how difficult it was. Although it’s a first-person shooter, players shouldn’t run and gun. The game’s pace is slow and methodical. Before stepping into a room, players have to use the bioscanner on a room via the Wii U Gamepad. That’s how you scout out ammo, weapons and healing items.

Once inside a room, all bets are off. The undead will come alive if you’re near them. Run away and they’ll follow you. As with other horror games, there are plenty of cheap frights. (Be careful of air vents.) Players have to conserve their ammo because it’s extremely limited and efficient shooting requires plenty of skill. If you’re firing a handgun, only a direct shot to the head at close range can kill the zombie with one bullet. And even then, you have to wait until they’re right on top of you so the margin for error is slim.

Out of ammo? Turn to your melee weapon a cricket bat, which isn’t very effective but it works.

CONSERVE THAT AMMO: When I was out of ammo, I turned to a cricket bat, but that’s slow and takes a long time. To be effective with the melee weapon, I had to get used to a rhythmic swing and pause. Players can’t hold down the left trigger and mash the right trigger thinking they’ll perform a fancy combo. They won’t. Meanwhile, the crossbow is the most effective and efficient weapon. It can be loaded with a scope for long range kills. But the best part about it is that players can shoot a zombie and grab the bolt after they finish almost like Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead.

One of the more interesting features is that other players can leave hints through a level a la Demon’s Souls. Players have to bioscan an area, and they can see arrows pointing to hidden passages in the palace or other text. Of course, the messages may not always be “helpful” so ZombiU prioritizes them. Friends’ messages will appear most frequently followed by ones based on user feedback.

This is almost the ideal range to fire a handgun at a zombie. Just make sure you don’t miss or you’ll be dead.

A FEELING OF TENSION ALL THE WAY THROUGH: The further I got into the demo, the more difficult ZombiU became. I had to deal with Irish Guard zombies and ones who were SWAT team members. Those creatures were the most difficult to kill because they were armored.

Toward the end, there is a scenario where numbers are written on the wall. Players are supposed to tap them into a keypad via the Wii U Gamepad, but the problem is that there are only three digits for the four number code. Players have to guess at it and do it quickly why trying to fend off the undead. I didn’t play through this part but Ubisoft’s Gabriel Shrager relayed it to me. It definitely sounds like the game will be tense all the way through and it seems like it will have the difficulty of a Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls.

Multiplayer isn’t what you’re expecting.

EXTRA TIDBITSYES, THERE IS A MULTIPLAYER MODE: Yes there is a multiplayer mode. It’s going to be local play and pits one player against another. The person on the Wii U Pro Controller treats the game like a normal FPS. But things are more interesting on the Wii U Gamepad. They act almost like a dungeon master placing zombies on the map via the touch-screen and sending them out. The goal is to prevent the survivor from reaching the end of the map or vice versa if you’re using the pro controller.

It’s interesting take on multiplayer and it could be a way for hard-core and casual players to get together though I think both may be fighting over the Wii U Gamepad.